Today was the first full testing day at WOP. It started as usual at 6:30 am in the hotel lobby. The funny thing though this morning was VANOC gives the Anti-doping team our own brand new GM vehicles. Our Acadia was out of windshield washer fluid this morning so Cinthia asked me to fill it up. She opened the hood of her vehicle and opened the cap on the fill tank for me so I filled it right up. I went to the next vehicle to fill the next windshield washer tank but realized that Cinthia had opened the wrong cap and I had filled her anti-freeze tank instead! Well, Elizabeth our venue manager was a bit disturbed by this but all it did was it made the inside of our Acadia smell like chemicals when we used the heater...
Well, we did tests on the Ukranian cross country skiers in the morning and the Russian cross country skiers in the afternoon. It was quite busy but it went really well. I was functioning as a doping control chaperone today which was fun because I was outside all day observing the cross country ski track to locate the athletes we had to test today. It was a perfect day, blue sky, warm and no wind. Tomorrow, we will switch roles and I will be the processing DCO and the others int he station will work as chaperones. Since the Olympics are such an important event, fro the pre-competiton testing, we are acting as chaperones for each other and not using volunteers until later into the games.
The funny thing that happened today was the Russian athlete I notified for testing wanted to do a cool down run after his training session. As a chaperone, we are required to stay with the athlete while he is waiting to provide a urine sample for testing so I went for a 5K run with an Olympic cross country skier in my Sorel boots. This is not a common practice but I figured since I was able to (physically) I went with him.
In the past, I have had bad experiences with Russian athletes in terms of avoiding us for testing, being a bit belligerent and annoyed at being tested but they were all very good about the process and very accomodating. My guy was a very nice young man. Obviously I can't talk about any details, list his name and I am not allowed even to take his picture but it was a nice surprise and a nice change to have a good experience with the Russian athletes.
I have to say that the food has been quite good. We are fed lunch and dinner everyday because our shifts are so long. Everything is free. Sandwiches, soup, drinks, hot chocolate, snacks and all the pop anf juice you can drink. I took a picture of the soup girl in the workforce tent today at dinner.
All of the athletes from all of the different countries are arriving now. it really is interesting to meet and talk with athletes from all over the world. It is funny because even though we are all different, we are all basically the same...
They painted the Olympic rings on the ski jump hill today so we stopped and watched for a bit.
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